Introduction
As promised an update on my smart meter; how did Octopus respond to my latest e-mail and follow up phone calls on 2nd and 18th Sept...
...Engineer booked to call on Friday 20th Sept with a flying lead for the comms hub.
Engineer Visits with a plan: 2 Things to Try
He changed the comms hub to a single band unit because he hard heard on the Octopus smart meter installation engineers' grapevine that the single band HAN network hubs were better with weak WAN signals (he actually installed the same model as was installed on my 1st smart meter in June 2021, the EDMI CS010A. This was mounted directly on the electricity meter, as per the June 2021 installation, but this time the KAIFA MA120 meter.
Result: commissioning did not work 1st time (his office based colleague could not connect to the comms hub), so he tried the next thing...
Using the same single band comms hub and electric meter he added the KAIFA FL100 Flying Lead. The location of the hub was selected as the furthest convenient location from the meter as the flying lead length would allow (further left or up was restricted by central heating and gas pipes). This gave about 53cm extra height and was about 13cm to the left (see images below).
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The same model of comms hub as was installed back in June 2021 (above photo of June 2021 install)... |
...but this time with the FL 100 Fly Lead to get more height and a little to the left |
The two ends of the FL100 mount on the electricity meter and the comms hub. It appears that connections are common between brands as here the KAIFA meter connects to the EDMI comms hub directly an via the FL 100 flying lead (see close up images below).
The engineer did not believe that this would work and I must admit that the short lead length giving only a 50cm gain in height did not seem likely to have a significant impact.
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KAIFA FL 100 flying lead mounted on top of the MA120 electricity meter |
Other end of the FL100 Flying Lead mounted under the comms hub |
Result: his office based colleague connected to the comms hub straight away, allowing the electricity meter, gas meter and In Home Display (IHD) all to commission 1st time.
Discussion
The various hardware configurations and commissioning attempts are summarised below:
|
Event |
Comms hub |
Electric meter |
WAN worked |
Notes |
|
June 2021 Engineer Visit |
EDMI CS010A Direct mount |
EDMI ES-10B |
No |
No WAN communications - smart meters working in dumb mode |
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May 2023 Engineer Visit |
EDMI CS010A Direct mount |
EDMI ES-10B |
Yes |
WAN communications established a few weeks after the engineer's visit. Electric meter working correctly, gas meter and IHD not communicating. |
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March 2024 solar system installed |
EDMI CS010A Direct mount |
EDMI ES-10B |
intermittent |
After my solar system was installed, Octopus starts to miss readings on around 5% of days. Manual retry from Octopus would capture missing reading. |
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June 2024 Engineer Visit |
EDMI CS020A-06-32 dual band hub Direct mount |
KAIFA MA120 |
No |
No WAN communications - smart meters working in dumb mode |
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Sept 2024 Engineer Visit |
EDMI CS010A Direct mount |
KAIFA MA120 |
No |
No WAN communications after single attempt to establish communications - no extended test. |
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Sept 2024 Engineer Visit |
EDMI CS010A FL 100 Flying Lead mount |
KAIFA MA120 |
Yes |
WAN communications established on 1st attempt. Currently showing just over 30days of data with no missing days. |
There is some danger here of making a generalisation from a limited data set, but here goes:
- Signal is weak where my electric meter is located, but smart meters are designed to keep on trying to commission indefinitely (eg KAIFA MA 120 will try every 4 hours) and so the original installation sprung into life after the May 2023 engineer's visit.
- It is likely that the installation of my solar system (inverter and battery) did impact the WAN signal so that after this about 5% of daily readings were missing (but could still be read when Octopus performed a manual retry - see diagram below).
- After installing the comms hub around 50cm higher the best WAN signal was seen:
- Commissioned on 1st attempt
- No missing daily readings (so far)
The comms hub is now about 5cm below the top of the battery and located opposite the gap between the battery and inverter (see photo below)
DCC provide communications hubs and also supporting information - the diagram below, from DCC, would indicate that my solar power inverter and battery would not be classified as 'significant metallic obstructions' by DCC. Neither the solar installation engineer nor the smart meter installation engineer highlighted this as an issue. However, the battery &/or inverter do seem to have some impact, causing some missing daily readings. I am assuming that the battery and inverter meet electrical interference standards and so that leaves their earthed metal boxes as a likely cause of the problem.
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Diagram taken from DCC document Communications Hub Supporting Information v2.0 In the 'North' region (Arqiva network) the comms hub should not be installed with a 'Significant Metallic Obstruction on 3 or more sides' where dimensions of the object are greater than: X: 32cm Y: 18cm D must be more than 18cm
In this case dimensions are: X (battery): 80cm Y (battery + gap + Inverter): 128 cm D: 285cm Ie a significant object on 1 side only and more than 18cm from the comms hub. |
Top of battery (left) is about 5cm above the comms hub. Both the Inverter (right) and battery are earthed metal boxes, mounted on the opposite side of the garage (approx 2.8m wide). |
My take is that the DCC specification of a 'significant metallic obstruction' is too 'black and white':
- Objects that are more than 18cm away and/or not on 3 or more sides will have a small impact
- In weak signal areas then a small impact may cause failures.
There are just under
54
million electricity meters in the UK and DCC
report that their network covers all but 0.7% of these, or 380,000
properties. I live in a village within spitting distance of the Greater
Manchester border; I struggle to believe that my house is within the 0.7% area
of non-coverage (it would be interesting to have DCC comment). So should that mean that a smart meter installation, that meets the DCC installation specification, should always work?
Perhaps surprisingly, the additional 50cm height of the comms hub makes a big difference, and this also helped the comms hub 'see past' the inverter and battery to the (unknown to me) location of the Arqiva/DCC antenna...
...of course all based on this one install (it would be interesting to hear from others in the 'North' on their experience of the flying lead).
Conclusion
The FL 100 Flying lead enables a slightly higher comms hub location that, in this case, makes a significant difference to the signal strength and also somewhat helps the comms hub 'see past' metallic objects.
Suggested Future Work:
- Octopus &/or DCC/other installers trial the FL 100 unit at other premises that are thought to have a weak signal - what proportion of the Northern region non-working smart meters start working with this additional, approx 50cm, of height?
- DCC specify some longer flying lead lengths. What is the maximum cable length possible? Perhaps a 10m and 15m option could be produced to allow the comms hub to be located in an attic and maybe a weather proof box to mount the comms hub on an outside wall.
- DCC publish a map of signal strength. It would e useful to know if a target smart meter location is in the 0.7% of properties that DCC believe are not covered.
I believe that the above will save money, by increasing the proportion of smart meters installed first time AND improve customer satisfaction...
...I have loads more ideas for stream lining smart meter installation, I feel another post coming on.
And Finally:
Many thanks to all the folks at Octopus who helped to get this resolved: Matt, Becky, Pardip, Joe, Lexis, Jordon, Tia, Amie, Mercy, Arran, Lou, Georgia, Harrison, Jack, Leigh, Daisy, Katie - the journey took over 3 years, but, thanks to your hard work and persistence we made it in the end.
Feb 2025 Update:
A neighbour sent me this photo of his smart meter. He had a number of elecricity suppliers and their subcontractors try to get his smart meter comms working. He used this post to convince his supplier (this time Ovo) to try the FL100 flying lead to get the comms hub working; it did the trick and he is now getting cheap rate electricity to charge his EV.
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